Bodmer and Milton Once More

Extract

Biblical epics like Milton's Paradise Lost, Klopstock's Messias, and Bodmer's Noah, must necessarily give prominence to the hostile, destructive spirits of evil, and inasmuch as these poems are all based on Biblical tradition it is natural that there should be a general similarity in the treatment of them. Several European scholars have maintained that Bodmer's infernal characters were influenced solely by Klopstock. The purpose of this paper, however, is to show that Bodmer borrowed repeatedly, at times almost literally, from Milton's descriptions in Paradise Lost. The evidence which I have presented elsewhere as to Bodmer's indebtedness in other respects to Paradise Lost, would seem to make it probable on general grounds that he was also indebted to Milton for his descriptions of the spirits of evil.